1. Technical Field
The present invention generally relates to a digital mixer for processing audio signals, and specifically relates to an editing apparatus for editing scene data and mixer configuration data applied to the digital mixer, and a scene data storage apparatus.
2. Related Art
Digital mixers are known in which a mixer configuration can be customized as described in non-patent document “DIGITAL MIXING ENGINE DME32 INSTRUCTION MANUAL”, Yamaha Corp., 2001. In the described technology, an audio signal processing unit is configured by use of a processor (for example, a digital signal processor (DSP)) that operates in accordance with programs to process audio signals on the basis of a mixer configuration (or signal processing configuration), which can be edited by use of an external PC (Personal Computer). The creation and editing of the mixer configuration on the PC are executed by use of a dedicated mixer control program. Namely, components of the mixer configuration displayed on the screen of the PC are arranged and these components are interconnected to specify their input/output relationship, thereby creating and editing the mixer configuration. The created mixer configuration is transferred to the digital mixer machine, which executes the received mixer configuration to realize the operation of the digital mixer.
The above-mentioned related-art mixer allows the use of a plurality of scene data for different mixer configurations. Scene data denotes a data set of parameters which are used when operating the digital mixer with the specific mixer configuration. If a same mixer configuration is used, the user sometimes wants to operate the digital mixer with different parameters for different scenes, so that a plurality of scene data are prepared, which may be called from time to time to operate the digital mixer.
Scene data accompanies each mixer configuration, so that different mixer configurations require different scene data structures. Therefore, there is no compatibility between the scene data having different structures corresponding to different mixer configurations. This lack of compatibility presents problems in various stages. For example, there sometimes occurs a situation in which a mixer configuration currently being executed with a mixer engine is slightly edited by the mixer control program of a PC and the edited mixer configuration is transferred from the mixer control program to the mixer engine for operation. However, this presents a problem that the scene used with the mixer configuration before editing cannot be recalled by the edited mixer configuration. Another problem is that, if a mixer engine comes with two or more models, they generally require different scene data structures, thereby making it impossible to share scenes among different models no matter similar the mixer structures are to each other.
Practically, one mixer configuration includes a plurality of configuration components such as an equalizer, a compressor, a filter, a mixer, and an effecter, and different mixer configurations may include configuration components of similar types. It is sometimes desired to share scene data between these configuration components. However, the sharing of scene data between different configuration components is allowed only for those mixer configurations designed accordingly. Consequently, the other mixer configurations cannot share scene data for reasons of the difference in configuration component scale for example.